When deploying a bomb from an air vehicle, such as an aircraft, the bomb is usually turned from a launch orientation (typically forward facing in the direction of travel of the aircraft) into a dive orientation (typically downwards and substantially vertical). At some altitudes there may be insufficient time for the bomb to move from the launch orientation to the dive orientation and accelerate to a sufficient speed to adequately impact the target.
There have been efforts to address this problem. For example, in a known arrangement a bomb is fitted with a rocket motor for providing constant thrust. This thrust increases the launch speed of the bomb and thus enables the bomb to turn faster to reach the dive orientation. The rocket motor then helps to accelerate the bomb towards the target. Such an arrangement is suitable for deployment at high altitude of around 8 km or higher, but at medium altitudes (for example between 5 km and 2 km) the bomb may still be travelling too slowly when it reaches the target to provide sufficient penetration.
It is desirable to provide an arrangement that reduces or mitigates the above-mentioned problem. Bombs are relatively inexpensive weapons as they tend not to have the complexity associated with some other weaponry such as missiles. It is also therefore desirable to address the above-mentioned problem without unduly increasing the complexity and/or cost of the bomb.